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Cave drawings suggest that Art might have preceded Science in the development of human civilization. Given that, I would suggest that the writings of Homer made the great leap in in literature, which could be the fulcrum of modern thought.
Before Homer, language and writing both existed, but were not combined in an artistic form that enabled later users to access prior ideas other than the chronicles of the mighty.
I just read through this entire thread for the first time. Several posters nominated the Industrial Revolution, but the specific development which enabled the Industrial Revolution was the ability to create steam and thereby create rotary motion of considerable force. Think how this multiplied the power of burning wood and coal, and in a revolutionary way. Steam power revolutionized manufacturing by turning large machines in series and steam power revolutionized transportation on both land and sea. On land, by the use of railroads, huge loads could now be moved with considerable reliability; before steam, horses, donkeys, and oxen were the movers of loads, and these loads were, by comparison, quite weight-limited. By sea, faster transportation of large vessels became possible with far greater reliability; no wind for a few days in a row? No problem. I believe the huge impact of steam power is generally underappreciated.
Thanks to the many contributors to this thread for an interesting read. My thesis in the pervious paragraph nominating steam power as the "single most significant event in all human history is arguable, I know. So many things make good candidates, especially the control of fire, agriculture, written language, the printing press, and the atomic bomb. Here's another one I don't remember being in the thread: powered flight (and to think it was just a little over 100 years ago!).
the railroad and the telephone also the unions to help with the industrial revelution. I also do think the cure many illlness that killed people
and now we have this cure. No one person or event did this
By convention, history begins with writing, which is the transition from Pre-history to Ancient History. "History" becomes a useful distinguishing term only if it differentiates between what man has told us, and what we infer from other data, because that transition represents a huge gulf of reliability. People who infer "history" from that unwritten data do not, as far as I know, typically call themselves historians.
Whether entry-level school history books preface themselves with a useful summary of prehistory is not, in my view, a compelling argument.
Ever heard of oral history? Oral tradition?
Guess you've never been around Native Americans.
A single historical event that forever changed the world. This is an objectional question, and for me it is the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Worst mistake we ever made. Once Einstien realized the destruction that would ensure he wrote that letter to President Roosevelt pleading to not do it, but it happened and it was evil.
Oral history is not generally considered to meet the criteria of History, as an academic discipline, unless there are independent oral histories that attest to the same events. Oral traditions explaining how fire first came into use, for example, are notoriously whimsical, and no academic historian would give them credence.
Beer! All of man kinds accomplishments pale in comparison!
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No one has mentioned steam power yet.
